I am always saying that the best training I ever got for writing novels and screenplays was my musical theater background (acting, dancing, directing, choreography). At the moment I’m teaching a film class to primarily animators, and I am stressing to them how useful understanding musical theater can be to their careers as film animators. But the same is true for any writer.

Looking at musical theater is an excellent way to learn how to present key story elements like Inner and Outer Desire, Into the Special World, the Hero/ine’s Plan, the Antagonist’s Plan, Character Arc, Gathering the Team – virtually any important story element you can name. Musical theater knows to give those key elements the attention and import they deserve. What musicals do to achieve that is put those story elements into song and production numbers. They become setpiece scenes to music. And you know how I’m always encouraging you all to SPELL THINGS OUT? Well, there’s no better way to spell things out than in song. The audience is so entertained they don’t know you’re spoon-feeding them the plot.

Yes, I know, you can’t put songs on the page. But – you can most certainly be inspired by the energy and exuberance of songs and production numbers, and find your own ways of getting that same energy and exuberance onto the page in a narrative version of production design, theme, emotion and chemistry between characters, tone, mood, revelation – everything that good songs do.

Right now my class is looking at The Nightmare Before Christmas. Let’s take a look at the songs in that piece one by one and identify the key story element, or elements, that each song is dramatizing.

• Overture –

An Overture does what an opening image or credits sequence does: it establishes mood, tone, theme and expectation. In this film the Overture ends with the Opening Image shot of the circle of trees in the woods that turns out to be a portal to all the different holidays. An important set up and a visual depiction of the premise of the entire movie, really.

• “This is Halloween” – The Nightmare Before Christmas cast/ choir

The opening number is big production number, as befits a musical, which sets up THE ORDINARY WORLD of Halloween Town, and almost all the principle characters (except Santa Claus). It’s also a WE ARE song, which I’ll get into in a minute.

• “Jack’s Lament” – Jack

This is a DESIRE song, or a WISH song. Nothing is better than musical theater for externalizing character’s needs, desires, plans and wishes. But there’s often more to a Desire song than that.

As I am always saying, a great deal of what creates dramatic conflict and character arc comes from the conflict between a hero/ine’s Inner and Outer Desire. For MOST characters, what they think they want is not what they actually need, and during the journey of the story, they will come to realize that they are WRONG about what they want. This musical is a strong example of that storytelling principle in action. In “Jack’s Lament” Jack sings that he’s tired of doing the same thing every year (basically, he puts on Halloween) and feels there’s something missing. He is going to seize on Christmas as the answer to that desire, when very soon we realize that what he really needs is Sally, the rag doll (sort of!) who is secretly in love with Jack. Jack’s Character Arc has to do with realizing that what’s missing in his life is Sally, as well as realizing that he’s good at what he does, that he’s supposed to be just who he is, the Pumpkin King, and thus finding new excitement in his life and life’s work.

A Desire song is very, very often a “Careful what you wish for” moment. It certainly is, here!

• “What’s This?” – Jack

Here we have a song of Jack exploring the Special World, after he’s gone through the door to Christmas Town (The Passageway to the Special World – which is also the Opening Image of the film: the circle of trees in the woods, with each tree having a door to a different holiday. This passageway scene has elements of C.S. Lewis’s The Mageician’s Son, The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, and probably a whole slew of other classics I’m not thinking about.)

• “Town Meeting Song” – Jack and Citizens

Here is a GATHERING THE TEAM song; Jack calls a town meeting to try to explain Christmas to the Halloween people, and rally them around this exciting new idea. Unfortunately, the team doesn’t get it.

So Jack’s first PLAN is to figure out Christmas so he can rally Halloween Town behind a new and exciting celebration, but the more he studies it, the more it eludes him.

• “Jack’s Obsession” – Jack and Citizens

A musical depiction of the HERO’S PLAN and OBSESSIVE ACTIONS (Obsessive and/or Immoral Actions and Crossing the Line are key elements of Act II, part 2, here they come a little earlier than that, but then, it’s a 71 minute movie!). The song ends with a MIDPOINT revelation: Jack realizes he doesn’t have to understand Christmas to make it his, and decides to impersonate Santa Claus (or Sandy Claws, as he says it). He cries out to the town “This year Christmas will be OURS!”

• “Kidnap The Sandy Claws” – Lock, Shock, and Barrel

A PLAN song: in this case it’s Jack’s Plan, but carried out by these three villainous henchmen, which turns it more into a Villain’s Plan without making us completely hate Jack. However, Jack has definitely Crossed the Line with this plan, as illustrated by the song, which should cause some recoil in the audience when LS and B start singing about boiling Santa like a lobster, just for example. The song also sets up the true antagonist: Oogie Boogie.

And this song is also a SIDEKICK song; one of the perennial delights of musical theater, which often, as here, employs the RULE OF THREE (even the names of the characters, Lock, Shock and Barrel, are a classic Rule Of Three pattern: same, same, different. In musical theater this is often a tap dance song; tap epitomizes playful exuberance and some comic slyness as well.)

Of course one of the most wonderful examples of the Allies’ Song or Sidekick Song and the Rule of Three is the three choruses of “If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve in The Wizard of Oz, which also serves as the Gathering the Team Sequence.

• “Making Christmas” – The Nightmare Before Christmas cast:

This is a production number that first dramatizes a Training Sequence, as Jack directs the Halloween Town people to make toys for his descent onto Christmas Town. It also dramatizes the Storming the Castle scene; Jack Storms The Castle (Christmas Town) by reindeer and sleigh, and proceeds to terrify the sleeping citizens of Christmas Town by delivering horrifying and in some cases, vicious presents.

• “Oogie Boogie’s Song” – Oogie Boogie

Meanwhile back in Halloween Town we get a classic Villain’s Plan song: main villain Oogie Boogie is going to torture Santa Claus. This is a down and dirty New Orleans- style song, which musical theater loves, especially as a musical style for the villain. It undercuts the villainy by making it seem sexy and appealing and danceable, which in a children’s film takes the edge off the scariness of this monster.

• “Sally’s Song” – Sally

The love interest’s DESIRE SONG comes quite late in the film, but her desire for Jack has not only been clear from the beginning, it’s actually been the emotional core of the whole film. We get completely behind Sally’s Desire at the same time that we’re getting more and more uneasy about Jack’s Desire. Here her Desire song is actually used as a Black Moment or All Is Lost scene for her; she does not believe at this moment that she’ll ever be with Jack (which makes us WANT that for her even more.)

• “Poor Jack” – Jack

Jack’s All Is Lost Moment comes as he has been shot down from the sky by the police of Christmas Town, and has fallen onto into the arms of an angel statue (representing Sally) in the cemetery. He sings as he hangs from the angel/cross that he has failed utterly at his attempt to take over Christmas. But in the middle of the despair of this song, he also finds a Revelation: that he is good at exactly what he does, and he becomes excited about planning for the next Halloween. He races off with a New Plan, to save Santa Claus and restore him to Christmas Town before it’s too late. Jack Storms The Castle again, this time Oogie Boogie’s castle, to fight Oogie and rescue Santa Claus and Sally in the Final Battle.

• “Finale” – Jack, Sally, Citizens of Halloween Town

The finale starts with a production number, a reprise of “What’s This?” in which Halloween Town citizens frolic in the snow that Santa has sent as a gesture of forgiveness, finally grasping at least the joy of Christmas. Then Jack and Sally’s final love song at the end is also a REPRISE, another favorite trick of musical theater. A Reprise is a great way to show Character Arc and a change in the hero/ine’s core philosophy or life outlook, as the second or third version of the song changes in lyrics and tone/mood (often with key changes from minor to major) to show progression. The love song is the same as Sally’s lament in Act II:2, but the words change from “Some things will never be” to “Some things are meant to be”. Of course, this and the kiss out on the frozen wave under the moon show us their NEW WAY OF LIFE: happily in love.

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So I started this on my own blog this week, and today I’d like to keep brainstorming other great examples of Key Story Elements in song. I’ll start it off:

PLAN songs: “Follow the Yellow Brick Road/We’re Off to See the Wizard” in The Wizard of Oz. “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” in Oklahoma (hey, I’m always saying, dating is a Plan.) “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from Funny Girl. “Normandy” from Once Upon a Mattress. And maybe my favorite plan song: “Tevye’s Dream”, from Fiddler on the Roof, in which Tevye feigns an elaborate nightmare to convince his superstitious wife that their eldest daughter should marry the poor tailor instead of the rich butcher.

Interestingly, “Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King is a PLAN song: Simba’s Plan at the moment is just to have a good time (like Prince Hal in Henry V). Of course, we know that Plan is not going to save the Kingdom from Scar! We want Simba to get his act together and do the responsible thing. I would also say “Luck Be A Lady” from Guys and Dolls is not just a Desire song but also a Plan song; often songs fulfill several story element functions.

Oh, and let’s not forget dark PLAN songs! One of my favorites is the duet between Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett: “Have a Little Priest”. Their PLAN is for Sweeney Todd to butcher people in his upstairs barber chair, and send the bodies down for Mrs. Lovett to bake into her pies, thereby fulfilling both their Desires: ST’s for revenge on humanity (especially the Judge) and Mrs. Lovett’s: to have a thriving pie shop and get closer to Sweeney Todd.

DESIRE songs:

Too many to even name! – there’s at least one in every musical. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” (My Fair Lady), “Reflection” (from Mulan – also a great Inner/Outer Desire song)”. “Corner of the Sky” (Pippin). “If I Were A Rich Man”. “I’m The Greatest Star” from Funny Girl, “Joanna” from Sweeney Todd, “Where is Love?” from Oliver! (also a THEME song).

When you have a character cluster such as the three oldest sisters in Fiddler on the Roof, they will almost always sing the Desire song as a group number as in “Matchmaker” (again, also, the Rule of Three). The male soldiers of Mulan (one set of her allies) express their own desires in “A Girl Worth Fighting For”.

It’s also very effective to use a group number to express a group Desire: as in “God I Hope I Get It”, in A Chorus Line. Every single one of those auditioning dancers wants the same thing: the job.

Sometimes instead of or along with a DESIRE song, the Hero/ine has an I AM song, in which s/he expresses a belief or philosophy that will be challenged during the course of the musical. A great, hilarious recent example: “I Believe” from The Book of Mormon.

I AM songs also can be, and often are: WE ARE songs: ensemble numbers in which a town or a group sings together about a group philosophy. “This is Halloween”, from Nightmare, is one of those, and there are some great ones throughout musical theater: “When You’re a Jet” and “America”, from West Side Story (which expresses battling philosophies within the culture and the song), and “Tradition”, from Fiddler on the Roof, also “Officer Krupke” from West Side Story, which is simultaneously a “We Are” song, a comic male specialty number, and a searing statement of the societal FORCES OF OPPOSITION in the story.

CALL TO ADVENTURE/INCITING INCIDENT

In a musical, as in romance, the inciting incident is often that first look at the loved one: “Maria”, from West Side Story, “Some Enchanted Evening,” from South Pacific. But there are some great non-love songs, too: “Neverland” from Peter Pan, “Bali Hai”, from South Pacific, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” from Godspell. And Godspell’s great composer Stephen Schwartz does the same kind of opening Call to Adventure in “Pippin” with “Magic To Do” – he really understands how to give the whole audience a Call to Adventure.

GHOST:

Ghost songs are not so common in musical theater, but “A Barber and His Wife” from Sweeney Todd sure fits the bill with its horrifying tale. In musical comedy you will more often see a comic flaw song, like “I Cain’t Say No” from Oklahoma! and “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls (which is a comic ghost song, in its way).

VILLAIN’S PLAN:

“Sensitivity from Once Upon a Mattress”, Oliver from “Oliver!”, Scar’s song in The Lion King: a production number that climaxes Act One. We see exactly what will happen to the animal kingdom if Simba doesn’t get his act together and defeat Scar.

The Villain’s Plan song also expresses our FEAR of what will happen, and concurrent HOPE – that the Hero/ine will prevent this dire vision from happening.

I want to point out that very often in musicals and especially in film musicals and animation, the Villain does NOT have a song; he or she will express the plan in words and action, not music. Except in the rare case like Sweeney Todd, music tends to undercut the impact of the villainy – you wouldn’t want to see the Wicked Witch of the West burst into song, now, would you? The fact is that absence of music is suspect and scary, as Shakespeare said so eloquently:

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.(The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.91-7)

However, as we see in Nightmare Before Christmas, having a scary villain sing can make him or her less threatening to children, which is an important consideration.

Also, secondary villains are often given the songs so you can have a vicarious musical delight in the evil, before the real evil kicks in. Herod’s flashy honky-tonk song in Jesus Christ Superstar is a good example.

TRAINING SEQUENCE songs:

“I’ll Make a Man Out Of You” – from Mulan. Some great irony, there, as the song also expresses the hero’s philosophical flaw as well as the theme of the movie. “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two” from Oliver (also a Mentor song), Do Re Mi, from “Sound of Music”.

MENTOR SONGS

This is also a kind of training sequence song. “On the Right Track” from Pippin (also could be read as a Temptation Song) “True to Your Heart”, from Mulan, “Hakuna Matata”, from The Lion King, Aunt Eller’s “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends” in Oklahoma!, “Impossible” from Cinderella, “Climb Every Mountain”, from Sound of Music, “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera (which is a villain song, too, and more of a Svengali song, but that’s a mentor variation). “Happy Talk” from South Pacific. “Bear Necessities” from Jungle Book is both an I Am song and a Mentor song. Most of the songs in the first half of Godspell are Training/Mentor songs, as befitting one of the ultimate Mentor stories.

The TRIUMPH or BREAKTHROUGH song:

“The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly In The Plain.” “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”. This number is often at an Act Climax or Midpoint.

The Triumph can be and often is the realization or reciprocation of love: “I Could Have Danced All Night”, “If I Were A Bell” (from “Guys and Dolls”), “Miracle of Miracles” and “Now I Have Everything” from Fiddler.

ALLLIES’ SONGS and SIDEKICK SONGS.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a very streamlined story, so subplots are sparse, but in full-length musicals some of the best numbers are ALLLIES’ SONGS and SIDEKICK SONGS. Allies’ Songs very often, if not almost always, express the Ally’s Desire, and are often a comic counterpoint to the hero or heroine AND also the hero/heroine love relationship (Ado Annie and Will in Oklahoma!) These songs are also often character dances such as tap, hip hop, regional dances. modern, swing, salsa, samba, tango, etc. Also Sidekick and secondary couple songs are often about a comic flaw: “I Cain’t Say No” in Oklahoma! and “Adelaide’s Lament” in Guys and Dolls.

I have to add that my absolute favorite kind of musical theater song is the SPECIALTY DANCE NUMBER, a group of usually five to seven women in a song and dance showstopper like the ones Bob Fosse is so famous for: numbers like Steam Heat, Big Spender, Mein Herr, He Had It Coming. At the moment I can’t think of any equivalent in film; it’s much easier to find specialty showstoppers with a small group of men, the classic tap numbers you see time and again both on stage and in film and the breathtaking gang dance numbers of West Side Story, but I wanted to bring the female equivalent up as an example of subversive female empowerment.

THEME SONGS:

And don’t forget that some songs are just to flat-out state the theme of the whole story: “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”, from South Pacific, “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods, “Cabaret” from Cabaret.

Okay, I could go on and on, but the point is I’d like to hear some examples from you guys! And by the way, I’ve made up a lot of those names for songs and dance numbers, so I’d love to hear other names for them.

The point I’m trying to make here is that whether or not you’re using music, song and dance in a story, you can learn volumes about creating emotionally effective scenes from looking at how musical theater handles key story elements. Take a favorite musical and watch it with that idea in mind. I think you’ll be amazed.

For those in the L.A. area, I’m doing a brand new event in Long Beach next weekend, sponsored by the great Mysterious Galaxy Books: Passion and Prose, featuring events with 40 romance and suspense authors. Info here!